10 Kids’ Audiobooks Inspired by Folktales, Fairy Tales, and Mythology
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Penguin Random House Audio
Folktales, fairy tales, and myths are perennial favorites, stories that stick with us from times as long ago as ancient Greece. Whether they’re fantasy, fables, or just plain fun, these stories are great on their own — but also provide a great place for a new story to start.
Here are some of our favorite folktale, fairy tale, and mythology-inspired audiobooks for tweens and teens:
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The Unicorn Rescue Society: The Creature of the Pines
Kids who imagine unicorns, dragons, and assorted cryptids everywhere they go will love this hilarious new series about friendship, adventure, and mythical creatures from around the world by Newbery Honor-winning author Adam Gidwitz.
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Grump: The (Fairly) True Tale of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves
Liesl Shurtliff has a well-earned reputation for turning fairy tales on their head with her hilarious and heartfelt origin stories. This one focuses on Rump, a grumpy dwarf who gets tangled up in Snow White's feud with the wicked queen.
Listen to a clip: SoundCloud
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Magic Tree House Series
In the beginning adventures of this beloved chapter book series, Jack and Annie travel through time completing quests for their friend Morgan le Fay, the enchantress of Arthurian legend. In the Merlin Mission books, the duo works with the wizard Merlin, also of Arthurian legend.
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The Enchanted Files: Diary of a Mad Brownie
When a messy girl gets a brownie — a tiny magical creature that loves to do chores — she also finds something else: a curse that threatens her entire family. Working together, Alex the girl and Angus the brownie set out to break the curse … without annoying each other to death first!
Listen to a clip: SoundCloud
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Aru Shah and the End of Time
Percy Jackson and the Olympians author Rick Riordan introduces this adventure about a girl whose tendency to stretch the truth snowballs into her waking up a demon — and finding the reincarnations of the five legendary Pandava brothers, protagonists of the “Mahabharata,” an Indian epic poem, in order to journey through the Kingdom of Death.
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Hans Christian Andersen’s Fairy Tales
Academy Award-winning actor F. Murray Abraham and an ensemble cast bring to life Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tales, from familiar favorites such as “The Little Mermaid” and “The Ugly Duckling” to new favorites like “Luck Can Be Found in a Stick” and “The Nightingale.”
Listen to a clip: SoundCloud
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The Trials of Apollo: The Hidden Oracle
Cast down from Olympus after angering Zeus, the god Apollo is now just a weak and disoriented human, living as a teenage boy in New York City. Without his powers, he has to find a way to survive in the modern world, and to get back on Zeus’s good side. The first in the Trials of Apollo series takes Apollo back to Camp Half Blood, an enclave of modern demi-gods and one of the settings of the beloved Percy Jackson and the Olympians!
Listen to a clip: SoundCloud
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Artemis Fowl
Artemis Fowl may be a young genius, but he’s in over his head when he kidnaps a fairy — and not one like from a bedtime story. Captain Holly Short is armed and dangerous. The first in a much-loved series introduces a sharp-witted protagonist and a richly imagined mythology, with a touch of humor.
Listen to a clip: SoundCloud
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Grimm’s Fairy Tales
Award-winning narrators present fairy tales both familiar and obscure in the bold and primal voice with which they were written. Stories features include “Rumpelstiltskin,” “Rapunzel,” and “Hansel and Gretel,” as well as more unknown gems like “The Shoes That Were Danced to Pieces” and “The White Snake.”
Listen to a clip: SoundCloud
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Beasts Made of Night
For slightly older readers, this YA epic fantasy with Nigerian roots grapples with the meaning of justice: Taj is a sin-eater, able to slay lethal creatures spawned from feelings of guilt. But when he is called to eat a sin of a member of the royal family, he finds himself entangled in the center of a dark conspiracy to destroy the city he calls home.
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What are your favorite kids’ audiobooks inspired by folktales, fairy tales, and mythology? Let us know in the comments below!